The First Days

Subject: The First Days Tue Oct 11, 2011 11:39 pm

It's been a long journey for me. You see, I'm not from Ba Sing Se, Omashu, or even any true settlement. My people are nomads. For the last 20 years, however, we've been sticking to the northwestern area of the mainland. I shouldn't say we; I've only been around for 17 years. And for the last month or so, I''ve been apart from my clan, journeying to serve the Earth King in his war against the Fire and Water nations... the rest of the clan didn't agree with us, and have set off to seek refuge in the Northern Air Temple for the duration of the war. That's okay though, I have my two best friends in the whole world with me, Zhing Ji and Shang Li. Neither of them are benders, but one's a pretty decent swordsmen and the other an amazing archer, so I know they'll be accepted in the army. I wish I could say the same for myself.

There's something you have to know; amongst all the clans of my people, it is common for benders to be born, but they are predominantly Air or Water benders. In all my people's recorded history, there have only been 7 earthbenders born to us, and each time there was either an earthbender present among us to train the new bender or there were scrolls the new bender could learn from. In my case, the clan only possessed one badly damaged scroll detailing the most basic technique. I could discern the basics of the form, but not the nuances that made it work. Desperate, I approached my clan's Shaman, an Air bender, for assistance. We spent hours poring over the scroll, and countless more simply attempting to reason it out, but all logic failed. Then we had a stroke of genius; what if I drew on Air forms to work Earth bending? Unconventional to be sure, as the two are opposite elements, but it couldn't hurt to try. We crafted a stave. My Shaman named it Ashabi's Focus, as a bit of a joke as I needed it to work my Earth bending. Hopefully, I'll be able to get away from my reliance upon it one day. For now, though, I must use it to work my abilities. Oh shit, I just gave away the story, didn't I?

Well, it worked. My control hasn't evolved to the point where I can pull large boulders out of the ground yet, but I can summon a large amount of pebbles now. To do this, I simply grip my stave somewhere along the back end and swing it upwards, with the speed I do this at along with my focus determining my control. From here, I can launch these outwards in a cone, fire them one by one at targets, or launch them all in a single mass at a single target. Doing this is simple. To fire them all at a single target, I take one of my hands from the back end of the stave and make a powerful pushing motion towards my intended target whilst the other hand brings the stave down behind me. To fire them one at a time, I swing the stave as if the pebbles are being flung off the end. To hit a wide area all at once, I make a sideways slash.

I must make sure not to aim at the eyes unless I wish to blind my target, however; when practicing in the woods, I accidentally struck a bear-lion in the eye and blinded it... Shang Li had to come put it down with an arrow through the heart.

Well, it would appear that I must be off now; looks like the wagon blocking the road finally got fixed. Until next time!

Subject: Re: The First Days Wed Oct 12, 2011 9:46 pm

It’s been a week since we arrived in Omashu. Zhing Ji and Shang Li are busy sparring and competing with the other soldiers at the moment. Very few can match Shang Li’s accuracy with a bow, and so far Zhing Ji has only been beaten at sword play once. Twice, now, she was just beaten by the divison commander. Ji is all grins, though; she’s never had so many people to spar with before. Back home, most of our people preferred to use bows and spears, whilst the other benders and I had staves. They are doing well, so well that none of us have been teased about our ears (apparently, pointed ears are unheard of throughout the rest of the world, despite being the predominant trait amongst our people. Only when one of our clan breeds with an outsider is a child born with round ears like Shang Li’s).

I wish I could say that my Earth bending was going as well as the other’s fighting. At the moment, I’m barely proficient enough to be assigned to engineering, and even there all I’d be doing would be raising raw chunks of stone for the engineers to chisel into fortifications. Important work, to be sure, but the other Earth benders assigned to my division say I have the potential to be just as powerful, if not more so, than any of them. Thank my maker that I’m decent enough with my quarterstaff to stay with a combat division.

We’d barely been in the city for three days when we were recruited. I suppose you could say I was conscripted, but I was happy enough to join the army. After all, that’s exactly what I came here to do.

I’d been disposing of the remains of my evening meal in the alley behind the small house I shared with Zhing Ji and Shang Li. It had not taken us long to realize that our ears were bringing too much negative attention our way, so by then we were in the habit of tying ribbons around our foreheads in such a way as to keep the tips of our ears hidden beneath the fabric.

Anyway, as I was turning to leave the alley, I noticed that there was a pair of large, scary men blocking the exit. A quick glance over my shoulder revealed three more at the other end. Shang Li had had a similar experience just the day before, but by the time Zhing Ji and I arrived on the scene, one of the men was refastening his pants and the other two were pumping away… we rescued her and left three gelded, naked men choking to death on their own man hoods. I did not relish a similar experience, and the end with the three men seemed to have more people, more potential witnesses, outside it, so I started to walk that way. Hopefully, someone would rescue me and I would not have to geld these men.

Anyhow, I made it about half way there before I was too close for comfort, and the leader spoke. He claimed that a pretty woman should not mar her beauty by obscuring her ears and forehead. He moved forward to remove it. I let him. Then I struck, using Earth bending to bring a small outcropping of rock up between his legs. He gasped, and blood could be seen pooling in the crux of his legs. I took the opportunity to practice my taunting; Zhing Ji would have been proud. The other men were enraged, and perhaps just the least bit terrified, but they still attacked, drawing short swords as they did. A pair of aggressive upward strokes with my quarter staff sent the two left in front of me flying into the sky, propelled by the outcroppings of stone I’d just created (I have not been able to produce an outcropping with such force since then; it would appear that stress makes my abilities more potent).

From there, I used my staff to generate and propel shrapnel at the pair behind me by simply spinning and making an upward sweep with my quarterstaff. The men were staggered by the impact, but they still kept coming. I was forced to resort to holding them off with my staff while they attacked with short swords. In normal circumstances, a short sword would have the advantage over a quarterstaff in a confined space such as an alley, but these men weren’t smart enough to attack one at a time. As a result, they were reliant on a series of thrusts, which gave me the advantage as I had the longer weapon. I was also able to utilize a series of spinning parries with the center of my stave whilst held vertically to send some of the closer thrusts spinning aside. At one point, I was able to send both men’s swords into the side wall, and instead of running for the mouth of the alley as I probably should have, I began to go on the offensive. The first man was clubbed on the side of the head and knocked unconscious. The second was dispatched in a more spectacular fashion, if humility may be forgotten for a moment (actually, now that I think of it, this whole recounting is very unhumble).

My staff was held in a two handed grip, one on each side. A hard downward swing to the to the forward part of the top of his head forced him to look downwards, the return swing brought his head back up, a jab from the opposite end sent him staggering backwards, small, pointed outcroppings of rock pinned his feet in place and a small boulder sent him flying backwards out of the alley and into the front wall of a tea shop. The boulder shattered into pieces it struck him so hard, and with such force that his feet and shins were left where he was standing while the rest of him was splattered against the opposite wall. Then I walked out of the alley.

Soldiers had both ends of the street cordoned off and were approaching. That’s when all the fight left me, and I simply sagged to the ground, exhausted by the amount of bending and fighting I’d just done. Some of them bore sympathetic expressions, others more annoyed. They all became awed when the two I’d sent flying skyward a couple minutes ago landed on either side of me and splattered all over, spraying me with blood and gore and bits of bone. The only man to survive was gelded by the soldiers who went into the alley and left for dead. Later they told me that even if he survived, he could not rape anyone without a dick.

I was taken to the barracks and enlisted into the army. Soon after, Zhing Ji and Shang Li were sent for and were enlisted as well.

It’s been four days, and the other benders are starting to teach me everything they know. I soak it up eagerly, glad to learn these forms. I learn, and I adapt them to be workable through my staff. Soon, I will be able to bend well enough without my staff, but I think I will always prefer it. I suppose it’s a sentimental thing.

Gotta go! One of the benders wants me to teach him how I channel my power so he can wield a spear at the same time, and he’s coming this way now! Until next time!

Subject: Re: The First Days Wed Oct 12, 2011 9:56 pm

Word Count1855
RUPs Earned 1
Techniques Learned

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